How do I stop more than 1 bullet firing at once?
pygame, pygame-tick, python
Solution
The general approach to firing bullets is to store the positions of the bullets in a list (`bullet_list`). When a bullet is fired, add the bullet's starting position (`[start_x, start_y]`) to the list. The starting position is the position of the object (player or enemy) that fires the bullet. Use a `for`-loop to iterate through all the bullets in the list. Move position of each individual bullet in the loop. Remove a bullet from the list that leaves the screen (`bullet_list.remove(bullet_pos)`). For this reason, a copy of the list (`bullet_list[:]`) must be run through (see How to remove items from a list while iterating?). Use another ` for`-loop to `blit` the remaining bullets on the screen:
bullet_list = []
while run == True:
# [...]
for event in pygame.event.get():
if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
run = False
if event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
if event.key == pygame.K_SPACE:
bullet_list.append([start_x, start_y])
for bullet_pos in bullet_list[:]:
bullet_pos[0] += move_bullet_x
bullet_pos[1] += move_bullet_y
if not screen.get_rect().colliderect(bullet_image.get_rect(center = bullet_pos))
bullet_list.remove(bullet_pos)
# [...]
for bullet_pos in bullet_list[:]
screen.blit(bullet_image, bullet_image.get_rect(center = bullet_pos))
# [...]
See also Shoot bullet.
The states which are returned by `pygame.key.get_pressed()` are, set, as long a key is hold down. That is useful for the movement of a player. The player keeps moving as long a key is hold down. But it contradicts your intention, when you want to fire a bullet. If you want to fire a bullet when a key is pressed, then can use the `KEYDOWN` event. The event occurs only once when a key is pressed:
while run == True:
clock.tick(27)
for event in pygame.event.get():
if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
run = False
if event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
if event.key == pygame.K_SPACE:
if player1.left == True: ## handles the direction of the bullet
facing = -1
else:
facing = 1
if len(bullets) < 5: ## max amounts of bullets on screen
bx, by = player1.x + player1.width //2 ,player1.y + player1.height//2
bullets.append(projectile(bx, by, 6, black, facing))
# [...]
If you want to implement some kind of rapid fire, then the things get more tricky. If you would use the state of `pygame.key.get_pressed()` then you would spawn one bullet in every frame. That is far too fast. You have to implement some timeout. When a bullet is fired, the get the current time by `pygame.time.get_ticks()`. Define a number of milliseconds for the delay between to bullets. Add the dela to the time and state the time in a variable (`next_bullet_threshold`). Skip bullets, as long the time is not exceeded:
next_bullet_threshold = 0
run = True
while run == True:
# [...]
current_time = pygame.time.get_ticks()
if keys[pygame.K_SPACE] and current_time > next_bullet_threshold:
bullet_delay = 500 # 500 milliseconds (0.5 seconds)
next_bullet_threshold = current_time + bullet_delay
if player1.left == True: ## handles the direction of the bullet
facing = -1
else:
facing = 1
if len(bullets) < 5:
bx, by = player1.x + player1.width //2 ,player1.y + player1.height//2
bullets.append(projectile(bx, by, 6, black, facing))
Minimal example: repl.it/@Rabbid76/PyGame-ShootBullet
import pygame
pygame.init()
window = pygame.display.set_mode((500, 200))
clock = pygame.time.Clock()
tank_surf = pygame.Surface((60, 40), pygame.SRCALPHA)
pygame.draw.rect(tank_surf, (0, 96, 0), (0, 00, 50, 40))
pygame.draw.rect(tank_surf, (0, 128, 0), (10, 10, 30, 20))
pygame.draw.rect(tank_surf, (32, 32, 96), (20, 16, 40, 8))
tank_rect = tank_surf.get_rect(midleft = (20, window.get_height() // 2))
bullet_surf = pygame.Surface((10, 10), pygame.SRCALPHA)
pygame.draw.circle(bullet_surf, (64, 64, 62), bullet_surf.get_rect().center, bullet_surf.get_width() // 2)
bullet_list = []
max_bullets = 4
next_bullet_time = 0
bullet_delta_time = 200 # milliseconds
run = True
while run:
clock.tick(60)
current_time = pygame.time.get_ticks()
for event in pygame.event.get():
if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
run = False
if event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
if len(bullet_list) < max_bullets and current_time >= next_bullet_time:
next_bullet_time = current_time + bullet_delta_time
bullet_list.insert(0, tank_rect.midright)
for i, bullet_pos in enumerate(bullet_list):
bullet_list[i] = bullet_pos[0] + 5, bullet_pos[1]
if bullet_surf.get_rect(center = bullet_pos).left > window.get_width():
del bullet_list[i:]
break
window.fill((224, 192, 160))
window.blit(tank_surf, tank_rect)
for bullet_pos in bullet_list:
window.blit(bullet_surf, bullet_surf.get_rect(center = bullet_pos))
pygame.display.flip()
pygame.quit()
exit()
Problem
``` import pygame pygame.init() red = 255,0,0 blue = 0,0,255 black = 0,0,0 screenWidth = 800 screenHeight = 600 gameDisplay = pygame.display.set_mode((screenWidth,screenHeight)) ## screen width and height pygame.display.set_caption('JUST SOME BLOCKS') ## set my title of the window clock = pygame.time.Clock() class player(): ## has all of my attributes for player 1 def __init__(self,x,y,width,height): self.x = x self.y = y self.height = height self.width = width self.vel = 5 self.left = False self.right = False self.up = False self.down = False class projectile(): ## projectile attributes def __init__(self,x,y,radius,colour,facing): self.x = x self.y = y self.radius = radius self.facing = facing self.colour = colour self.vel = 8 * facing # speed of bullet * the direction (-1 or 1) def draw(self,gameDisplay): pygame.draw.circle(gameDisplay, self.colour , (self.x,self.y),self.radius) ## put a 1 after that to make it so the circle is just an outline def redrawGameWindow(): for bullet in bullets: ## draw bullets bullet.draw(gameDisplay) pygame.display.update() #mainloop player1 = player(300,410,50,70) # moves the stuff from the class (when variables are user use player1.var) bullets = [] run = True while run == True: clock.tick(27) for event in pygame.event.get(): if event.type == pygame.QUIT: run = False for bullet in bullets: if bullet.x < screenWidth and bullet.x > 0 and bullet.y < screenHeight and bullet.y > 0: ## makes sure bullet does not go off screen bullet.x += bullet.vel else: bullets.pop(bullets.index(bullet)) keys = pygame.key.get_pressed() ## check if a key has been pressed ## red player movement if keys[pygame.K_w] and player1.y > player1.vel: ## check if that key has been pressed down (this will check for w) and checks for boundry player1.y -= player1.vel ## move the shape in a direction player1.up = True player1.down = False if keys[pygame.K_a] and player1.x > player1.vel: ### this is for a player1.x -= player1.vel player1.left = True player1.right = False if keys[pygame.K_s] and player1.y < screenHeight - player1.height - player1.vel: ## this is for s player1.y += player1.vel player1.down = True player1.up = False if keys[pygame.K_d] and player1.x < screenWidth - player1.width - player1.vel: ## this is for d player1.x += player1.vel player1.right = True player1.left = False if keys[pygame.K_SPACE]: # shooting with the space bar if player1.left == True: ## handles the direction of the bullet facing = -1 else: facing = 1 if len(bullets) < 5: ## max amounts of bullets on screen bullets.append(projectile(player1.x + player1.width //2 ,player1.y + player1.height//2,6,black,facing)) ##just like calling upon a function ## level gameDisplay.fill((0,255,0)) ### will stop the shape from spreading around and will have a background pygame.draw.rect(gameDisplay,(red),(player1.x,player1.y,player1.width,player1.height)) ## draw player pygame.display.update() redrawGameWindow() pygame.quit() ``` When I shoot more than 1 bullet fires and I only want 1 bullet to fire at a time (but not only 1 bullet on the screen) They all fire in a large clump and stick together also so I want them to fire at different times I have tried using a delay `clock.tick` but that makes the game extremely laggy I am relatively new to pygame and don't fully understand it any help would be appreciated thanks !